Calendar Skills

Calendar Templates!

It is August 1st & a few days ago I realized that I needed a new Calendar template for my “To Do” board but also a calendar template that my little man could explore with. So, I spent a good chunk of time developing calendar templates that I liked and that also had TRACEABLE month titles and also included the identical set in the printable with regular month titles.

[Click HERE to become a member – get unlimited access to ALL The Mommy Teacher Printables including this one!

OR CLICK HERE to purchase any one of these Calendar Templates individually from my TeachersPayTeachers Store.]

What can children learn from calendar exploration?

Patterns – The days of the week repeat their same order every week.

Vocabulary – Yesterday, today, tomorrow, weekend, days of the week, month, months of the year, holidays, etc.

Organization – Graphic organizers (like calendars) are so great for kids to be exposed to. They show order and give meaning to our everyday routines.

One-to-One Correspondence – We wrote one number in each square.

Weather Recording – Check out my weather tracking post with the September template attached for free!

Ordinal Numbers – When you say the days of the week in a sentence you would say “Today is August FIRST, tomorrow is August SECOND,” etc.

What did my calendar experience look like with my 3 year old?

I put our calendars on clipboards and we sat down at the playroom table and talked about them while we doodled on our calendars. I sang the days of the week song, the months of the year song, and then we counted how many days were in August. We “x’d” out the days that had already passed. We marked upcoming events with stickers. I prepared him in advance for days that mommy or daddy had something to do so that I can remind him by pointing to the calendar and he can visually see that the event will come and go.

Sean Patrick felt so “official” with his calendar on his clipboard. While I wrote the numbers and upcoming events on my calendar attached to the clipboard, he “wrote” what he wanted to do on his.

He made a lot of markings and said things like “I will go to Maya’s house on Friday, and MeMe will be 70 on Tuesday.” Haha I loved his made-up events. And his MeMe is only in her mid-50’s but one of her sisters told Sean Patrick that she was almost 70 haha.

He even asked me for another “August calendar” yesterday so that was my indicator that he actually had as much fun as I did with this activity.

August 1, 2013 by Jessica | Comments Off

October Calendar!

Are we already a week into the month of October? Believe it or not, I am just now making and printing my October Calendar to post in my kitchen. So, go back and read my September Post about Weather Tracking for some of my thoughts on teachable opportunities with Weather Tracking and try to start October’s tracking (a little late thanks to yours truly).

Here is your October Calendar

If you would like to buy the entire year of this theme, check them out HERE!

October 6, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

September Weather Tracking!

I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana so I am already experiencing Tropical Storm Lee and will be all weekend.
Being that I am rained in, and thinking of all of the mommy teachers who might be, I decided to make a freebie for you this morning 🙂

September Calendar

If you like this template… you can buy the whole years worth HERE!

There are sooo many skills you can teach using a calendar, and this month specifically, try to focus on teaching calendar skills by making a “weather calendar.” Just place the calendar on your fridge (or on display in the playroom), and ask your little one to help you be a weatherman (or woman) this month!

You can teach:

prediction: “What do you think the weather will be tomorrow? What do you think the weather will be like later today with a dark, cloudy sky this morning?”
patterns – “Do you see any weather patterns this week?”
picture graph data – “How many sunny days have there been? How many rainy days? Have there been more/fewer sunny days or rainy days this week/month? What kind of weather have we seen the ‘least’ of this month?”
vocabulary – monday, tuesday, sunny, cloudy, most, least, etc.

Your little one’s calendar might look like this:

or you might record the weather every morning and afternoon and in that case it will look different, but just do whatever is most age-appropriate for your little one… maybe your little one will only draw the pictures, maybe your little one will only write the “s” for sunny, and maybe your little one will only write the sight word. But as always , make this experience fun for them.

September 3, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment